Allen Gregory is an American animatedtelevision series that aired Sundays at 8:30 pm on Fox from October 30 to December 18, 2011.[1] The series was created by Jonah Hill, Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul. The series received enormously negative reviews and was cancelled by Fox on January 8, 2012.[2]

Contents

The series follows Allen Gregory De Longpre (Jonah Hill), a pretentious seven-year-old boy raised by his father, Richard, and his father's husband, Jeremy. Allen has an adopted sister, Julie. Allen must start attending a public elementary school due to the effect of the recession on his family's finances. Richard also pressures Jeremy to secure employment due to the financial issues, although Richard avoids divulging information to Jeremy as to why they need additional income. Allen is enamored with an elderly school principal, Judith Gottlieb, much to her disapproval. She protests but is forced to accept his behavior due to pressure from the school superintendent, who is friends with Richard.

Jonah Hill as Allen Gregory De Longpre, a precocious and pretentious seven-year-old who is forced to attend elementary school due to the recession. He has a warped perception on how the world works.

French Stewart as Richard De Longpre, Allen's homosexual father. Richard is the so-called "Super CEO" of De Longpre International, but it turns out to be a fake title his father made up because his son isn't capable of running the company. Richard is given fake jobs to be kept busy. Like Allen, Richard's views on the world are warped.

Nat Faxon as Jeremy De Longpre, Richard's husband. Jeremy is a former social worker who had a loving wife and family, although this changed after Richard became one of his clients. Richard was attracted to Jeremy to the point where he started stalking him and his family until Jeremy finally agreed to be his husband. It's been said that Jeremy is actually heterosexual but left his wife and children for Richard, who offered him an easy, no-maintenance life as his trophy husband. He's a nice guy and a bit of a pushover, and receives little to no respect from Allen or Richard.

Joy Osmanski as Julie De Longpre, Allen's adopted Cambodian sister. Similar to Jeremy, Julie is constantly abused by both Allen and Richard.

Cristina Pucelli as Patrick, a student who is Allen's best friend/assistant. He is one of the only kids at school who hangs out with Allen. When Patrick says something, Allen often doesn't listen unless it plays to his ego.

Will Forte as Stuart Rossmire, the school superintendent. He understands Allen's mistakes, and often tries to date Allen's first-grade teacher.

Renée Taylor as elderly school principal Judith Gottlieb. Allen is in love with Judith and persistently tries to win her attention, but Judith makes it very clear that she is not interested in a romantic relationship with the child. She once conspired with Julie to get him expelled. Judith is straightforward and has a serious, no-nonsense demeanor. She is in a long-term romantic relationship with Sidney, the school's counselor. They live together and have recently celebrated their 65th anniversary. Sidney has made comments about getting married which she has blown off, though she has referred to their relationship as marriage to herself.

Leslie Mann as Gina Winthrop, a first-grade teacher who has Allen in her class. She tries to teach Allen but he continually disrupts the class and shows little to no respect for her or her job.

Keith David as Carl Trent D'Avis aka Cole Train, an elderly African-American man whom Allen comes to when he has a problem, although Carl doesn't always give the best advice. He has shown violent and destructive tendencies, such as by attacking an unsuspecting diner manager and setting a records hall on fire in the same day.

Lacey Chabert as Beth. She is one of Julie's best friends and wears a back brace.

Nasim Pedrad as Val, another of Julie's best friends. She is of Indian descent and is obese.

Jake Johnson as Joel Zadak, a popular kid at school. Allen tries hard to impress Joel but is mostly made fun of in return.

Will Forte as Ian, one of Allen's classmates. He is often picked on by Joel and the other students because his mom is dead.

Jonah Hill as Guillermo, an overweight Latino kid who is a sidekick of Joel. Allen mistakes him for a maid.

Lisa Kudrow as Sheila. She appeared in the episode "Mom Sizemore", in which Allen thought she was his biological mother. Allen brought her to live with him and Richard, which forced Jeremy to move out. When she started to get strict with him, Allen realized there was nothing wrong with Jeremy, so he got him back and she left. Later, Allen finds out that Carl just pulled a random file and that he still doesn't know who his real mother is.

Because of a recession, successful seven-year-old Allen Gregory DeLongpre has been forced to attend elementary school. But because of his precociousness, he has difficulty fitting in. He becomes infatuated with school principal Judith Gottlieb.

When Joel Zadak stays home from school because he’s sick, the always presumptuous Allen Gregory steps in to help his popular “friend” by keeping tabs on the clique. As Allen Gregory gains some ground with the exclusive group, Zadak loses more than his friends. Meanwhile, Richard hits the boardroom at his father’s company.

Gina decides to teach Allen Gregory a lesson by making him write a paper on racism after he mistakes Guillermo, a fellow Hispanic classmate, for the school janitor. Allen refuses to write the paper and instead produces a school play and presents it to the school, staff and student parents.[5]

Allen Gregory discovers that it is biologically impossible for a male to bear a child, contrary to the story that he was conceived by his two fathers, a lie his father told him. Allen decides to find his biological mother Sheila and reunite her with his father, while shutting Jeremy out, until he realizes it's a terrible mistake.

Allen Gregory attempts to blackmail Principal Gottlieb to date him. He did it successfully, but then Judith later turns her back on him by reading a love letter from her husband, the school's counselor.

Fox placed an order for seven episodes in October 2010.[10] On July 12, 2011, Fox ordered six additional scripts of the series.[12] Although unknown if the scripts were ever finished, the scripts were never produced into episodes.[13]

The season was originally available on the iTunes Store and Amazon for download at the time. However, it was eventually taken down for unknown reasons. Also, no DVD release has been announced or released to date.

Allen Gregory received extremely negative reviews from critics. On that basis, it is considered to be one of the worst animated series to air on television. Chris Swanson of WhatCulture gave the pilot episode a rating of 0.5 out of 5, saying "There is nothing charming, witty or interesting about this show. It’s just one horribly stupid, cringe-inducing moment after another with characters who are truly loathsome and unpleasant."[14] Robert Bianco of USA Today also gave the show a negative review, saying it was "nasty and brutish", "rarely funny", and made them "hate every character except Julie".[15] Nonetheless, a positive review came from the Chicago Sun Times, saying the show had "comedic potential."[citation needed] Metacritic had an overall review of 40% for the show.[16]